Beep the Meep is back -

and he's found a new

channel for his

aggression! A brand

new series is about to

make television

history, but can the

Doctor prevent his

furry foe from

turning a docu-drama

into a crisis, or will

the fluffy-wuffy

animals get it in the

neck? The first shots

in the ratings war

have been fired, and

the next one is aimed

at your head...

| | | | | | | |

PREVIOUS NEXT

The Ratings War

JANUARY 2002

(1 EPISODE)

Listening to “The Ratings War” is an amusing way to spend half an hour. This story, available only on a CD given away with issue #313 of Doctor Who Magazine, serves as a nice little taster of what Big Finish have to offer in respect of Colin Baker’s Doctor.

Steve Lyons was tasked with throwing together this episode, and manages to create a short but interesting satire ridiculing Big Brother and all those other awful reality television shows that I personally cannot stand. “The Ratings War” also has a slightly bitter twist to it – there are lots of indiscreet digs at the BBC for cancelling Doctor Who (just like in Lyons' novel "Time of Your Life," which has much in common with this episode) – but the jibes are all done tastefully and in good humour and actually compliment the story quite well.

Toby Longworth is superb as ‘Beep the Meep', the innocent-looking but malevolent fluffy war criminal, and his sparring with the companionless Doctor makes for some light-hearted but nonetheless compelling entertainment.

At the end of the day “The Ratings War” is not going to win any awards for either best drama or for innovation (much of the material is borrowed from Lyons' novel "Time of Your Life"), but for a magazine freebie it is hard to have any complaints!

E.G. Wolverson has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

There is no guidance to assist in placing this story. The Doctor appears to be travelling alone, suggesting that these events occur following The Trial of a Time Lord, however even this is not certain as Old Sixy has been known to drop his companions off for a little respite on occasion. Given that the story features Beep the Meep, from the Doctor Who Magazine comic strip, we have – quite capriciously - placed it shortly after the Doctor’s second stint of adventures with comic strip companion Frobisher, between the Big Finish audio dramas The Holy Terror and Her Final Flight.

Unless otherwise stated, all images on this site are copyrighted to the BBC and are used solely for promotional purposes.